is it not so? The earth has been strewn with the dead bodies of the defenders of liberty, and yet not one drop of blood has been spilt in vain. The cause has always risen from the grave, and been always marching onwards to victory. An obscure individual utters a great idea; the kings of the earth conspire against him, his feeble band of followers are dispersed, but the idea is immortal, is unconquerable, and rises from the dust of the battle-field, where it was supposed to be left with the slain, prepared for new battles and ultimate victory. Here is a truth precious to all the friends of humanity. It breathes the breath of life into the reformer, enables him to stand up undaunted against a world. What though I am alone, and of the people there is none with me? what though ye scoff and sneer at me? what though ye rage and vent your spite at me? Rage on, do your worst. Ye may silence my tongue, palsy my arm, crush my body, and seal me up in a new tomb hewn from the rock. What then? Ye cannot touch the holy cause in which I am engaged. I speak for God, for man, and my words shall echo through eternity; before the truths I utter ye shall yet grow pale and tremble; nay, bow down and worship. Here is the moral of the resurrection. Cherish it all ye who love your race, and know that in the sacredness of your cause ye are immortal and invincible."

CHAPTER XXVI.-THE CHURCH.

"Passing over the Bible, what is your view of the church?"

"The object of Jesus was to found a spiritual kingdom on earth; that is, to bring all mankind under the dominion of the great ethical and religious principles he set forth, all of which an apostle sums up in the terms, 'righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.' A kingdom of this kind must needs have its throne in the conscience and the affections, and is therefore by its very nature internal and invisible. The true church of Christ, the true catholic church, I hold therefore to be not an outward, visible church, but an inward and invisible church.

"Nevertheless the internal must needs have an outward, visible symbol. It must manifest itself in the outward organization of mankind. In the past it has been able to do this only by means of an organization separate from the civil or political organization; that is, by a separation of

church and state. But I do not find that Jesus contemplated this double organization of mankind. In strictness he allows but a single organization. The state should be a church. That is, the state should be organized in perfect accordance with the great principles of truth and righteousness which constitute the internal church, and then no other organization of mankind would be needed, or in fact admissible. The time before this can be done will be long. Mankind are yet suffering from the evils, which have resulted from the union of church and state; that is, by the alliance of the two organizations, and they must very generally regard what I am contending for as a renewal of the same. They cannot as yet understand the difference. between a union of church and state, and the unity, or identity, of church and state. So we must wait patiently. All will come right in due time."

"But I am more particularly interested in the doctrines of the church. In order to be a Christian must I embrace all these mysterious, absurd, or conflicting dogmas, the church has contended for?"

"My friend, Mr. Howard, who never troubles himself with the dogmas of the church, will tell you that in order to be a Christian, all you need is to live the life of Jesus." Certainly," remarked Mr. Howard, who that instant came in. "I see little good which comes from mere doctrinal discussions. I find men very much the same under all creeds and under none. Tell me a man's creed, and I must still inquire what are his morals. I care little about modes of faith. Give me a good life, patterned after the life of Jesus, and I am satisfied."

"So am I," replied Mr. Morton. "Nevertheless, ideas are not to be thought lightly of. There are great problems relating to God, to man, and his relations to God, to man's duty and destiny, which it is very important should be solved; and I must believe one's character is essentially affected by the solutions he adopts. I am far from condemning zeal for the faith, and I confess that I prefer big otry, and even the most violent persecution for opinion's sake, to mere indifference to all opinions. True liberality is at an infinite remove from indifference. Liberality does not prohibit one from valuing his own faith, from regarding it as superior to all others, and of infinite importance to the welfare of the soul; but it consists in allowing to all

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men the same right to form their own opinions, and to propagate and defend them, which we claim for ourselves.

"For my own part, my philosophy teaches me to be very slow in dissenting from opinions which have been embraced by any considerable portions of my fellow men. The fact that a given doctrine has been widely believed, and earnestly contended for, is to me a presumption that it covers some truth, or an aspect of some truth, essential to the complete intellectual life of man. I then do not attempt to reject and disprove, but to comprehend and verify; and I count not myself to have rightly comprehended a doctrine till I have seen it in a light in which my reason approves it.

"It is undoubtedly no easy matter to get at the precise truth or aspect of truth covered by a particular doctrine. My method is to interrogate my own consciousness. All doctrines cover a fact of consciousness, or are designed to meet some want of the soul or understanding. I attempt then by a scrupulous analysis of human nature, to find what is the fact which the doctrine in question is designed to cover, or the want it is intended to meet. When I have discovered this fact, or this want, I take it for granted that I have discovered all that is essential in the doctrine. Undoubtedly in this analysis I may err; I may overlook some fact; I may not reduce a given fact to its lowest denomination; and I may misinterpret the facts I do discover. But I must be as honest and faithful as I can, and do all in my power to guard against error. To this end I must proceed slowly, and not be hasty in rushing to conclusions. I must go over the ground often, and review, and re-review my work till I have attained to all the exactness in my power.

"In a work of this kind I have been engaged for some years. When I have completed it to my own satisfaction, I hope to be able to give the world the results. But as yet I am a learner. Every day enlarges my experience and develops new wants within me, which essentially modify my former conclusions. Where I shall end, I know not now. But the more I inquire, the more deep and varied becomes my experience, the more confidence do I acquire in the experiences recorded in the Bible, and the more willing do I become to trust them where my own is imperfect or doubtful.

"On the great leading points of Christian faith I have attained to what I deem well-grounded convictions, and

these convictions, so far as I can myself judge, are substantially the same with those which the church has always contended for. How far the church will receive my expositions, I know not, and care not. I agree with it in the main as to what it actually believes, but I differ from it often as to the account it gives of its faith. I accept its faith, but not always its philosophy, what it really means, though I sometimes reject its interpretations.

"The great error of different sects is not in the fact that they embrace false doctrines, but defective doctrines. What they have is true, as far as it goes, but is not the whole truth. Each sect has a truth, and is so intent on maintaining that truth, that it overlooks others equally essential. The Calvinist has a great truth, the sovereignty of God. He would introduce this truth everywhere. God is to him an absolute sovereign, who disposes of all things as he pleases, makes one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor; has mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardeneth. This is all true. But there is another truth which the Calvinist overlooks, the free agency of man. He is so intent on exalting God, and extending the sphere of the divine action, that he leaves man out of the account. "The Arminian on the other hand, struck with the fact that man after all must count for something, plants himself on man's free agency. In his efforts to exalt man, and give him his proper sphere of activity, he overlooks the divine agency, and virtually annihilates God. Now both build on real facts; for God is absolute sovereign, and man is free. Both facts must be accepted. Man's freedom must be so interpreted as to leave God's sovereignty complete, and God's sovereignty must be so interpreted as to leave man's ability unimpaired.

"The believer in endless punishment is struck with the fact of God's justice. He recognises the fact which our reason discloses, that no man should be suffered to sin with impunity. God is just. He is of purer eyes than to look on sin with the least allowance or approbation. He will therefore by no means clear the guilty. So intent is the believer in endless punishment on this fact, that he does not sufficiently consider that God is also a God of love and mercy. The Universalist seizes upon this latter fact which he exaggerates and so interprets as virtually to exclude the idea of justice. Both are right, and both are wrong. But the two ideas are easily enough reconciled. The Universalist

does not object to man's receiving the consequences which, in the order of Providence, necessarily follow transgression; nor will the believer in endless misery deem it unjust that a man, when he has ceased to sin and become holy, should receive the rewards of holiness. Then assume that God will never place a man in any condition in which he cannot repent, and become holy if he will, and all controversy must cease. If the man sins eternally, let him be damned eternally; if he repent and become holy, whenever the event may occur, let him, as he must from the very state of his soul, enjoy God and heaven.

"The Trinitarian contends for the Deity of the Son and Spirit, and in doing this he overlooks to some extent the fact of God's unity, that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are but one God. The Unitarian takes up the idea of unity which the Trinitarian neglects, and looks so steadily on this, that he fails to see that this one God exists as a Trinity. We ought to be careful that our explanations of the Trinity do not impair the idea of unity, and we should so understand the unity of God as to leave room for the admission of his threefold existence."

"And how is this to be done?"

"I can give you now only one way of doing it. I might remark that if you supposed God to be a mere unity, an absolute unity, you could never get at multiplicity; conse quently you could never arrive at creation. God is not a mere barren unity, dwelling in eternal solitude, but he manifests himself in variety. Now in order to do this he must be both one and many, finite and infinite. He must then be one and many, and their relation. Here is a Trinity which you will find in reason, implied in every assertion, and in every thought. But on this I cannot now dwell. I look at God as the ground of all existence, the source whence all life and being proceed, and I call him the Father. I look again at this same God, as manifested, or uttered, that is, put forth, and I call it the Word, or Son. I look once more at this same God as a vivifying and sanctifying Spirit, preserving nature and giving it its life, enlightening the soul and sanctifying it, and I call it the Holy Ghost. Here are to my mind three obvious distinctions, each of which is God, and all three of which are one and the same God.

"The doctrine of the Atonement has excited not a little controversy. Still I think the doctrine is founded in truth. Christianity addresses man as a sinner, and it seeks his recovery, his reconciliation and union with God.